A NINE-YEAR-OLD boy with a brain tumour has become the first in the UK to have testicular tissue frozen with the hope he can have children later in life.

Nathan Crawford has undergone radiotherapy and chemotherapy to shrink his inoperable tumour but the treatment could make him infertile.

In a ground-breaking procedure, surgeons have removed a wedge of testicular tissue and frozen it, and will aim to one day re-implant it in Nathan. If successful, he will have a good chance of becoming a father.

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It’s thanks to pioneering work being done at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

Nathan’s stepfather Jonathan Alison, 34, revealed how he and the science-mad lad’s mum Donna Hunt, 31, have explained the tumour to Nathan and how the procedure to store testicular tissue might help him in later life.

Jonathan said the family, of Bude, Cornwall, first noticed something was wrong with Nathan in January.

He said: “Nathan was having more headaches than you would expect and also had blurry vision, which we initially put down to too much time on the games console or possibly problems with his eyesight.

“We took him to the optician who sent us straight to the doctor. We have been told the tumour is non-cancerous and is grade two. With this type of tumour, as a child gets older, it will grow. It could cause damage that could be life-threatening.”

Natham, who has a two-year-old brother, Ned, is now on his second cycle of chemotherapy.

Jonathan added: “He’s coped really well and hasn’t suffered too much from side-effects.

Nathan plays with his brother Ned.

“He’s very much looking forward to Christmas and we couldn’t be prouder of the way he has taken it all in his stride. Once he’d been up to Oxford to have the tissue removed, he was back home in Cornwall within 48 hours eating fish and chips.”

Dr Sheila Lane, a consultant paediatric oncologist at the John Radcliffe, said the new technique had worked in animal models. It is similar to ovarian tissue freezing, which has produced live births for women undergoing the procedure.

Dr Lane confirmed chemotherapy and radiotherapy are the only options for shrinking Nathan’s tumour.

But she added: “These tumours can possibly be cured with intensive chemotherapy. Patients can have a long and happy life without any problems.”